March 23, 2000
BERKELEY, Calif. -
California came out of the gate hard and fast Thursday afternoon, trampling over the visiting Howard University Lady Bison 15-4 inside Memorial Stadium. Freshman attacker Britni Must broke loose for three goals and an assist to lead the Bears in scoring.
It took California (5-3 overall, 2-2 in the WWLL) the first six minutes of the game to find its rhythm against Howard (3-4 overall), but when it found it, there was no stopping. The Bears opened up with 11 straight goals, keyed by freshman midfielder Laura Forrest's goal with 23:43 remaining in the first half, before Howard ever got on the scoreboard. Freshman midfielder Leslie Arndt scored the final goal of the first half, with 13 second left on the clock, to send California into halftime up 12-1.
"We scored a lot on the fast break today," said Malko. "So much of our offense is geared towards the set plays, so it was nice to get a chance to work on our fast breaks. We talked about taking more shots and converting those shots into goals."
As a team, California scored on nearly 50 percent of its attempts while holding Howard to just 14 shots for the game. Freshman goalkeeper Eden Coelho put together another solid afternoon in front of the net, recording 10 saves for the Bears. But again credit goes out to a California defensive unit that closed down the midfield and, save for a few rare occasions, kept the Lady Bison completely contained on their side of the field throughout the contest.
"I actually felt like we were a little slow on our feet and didn't do as good a job as we could have converting back to our defense," said Malko. "Part of that was Howard's speed catching us off-guard at times."
California heads out to the east coast for a three-game spring break road trip next week which will feature match-ups against experienced and skilled competition in Virginia Tech, Davidson College and Limestone College.
"Our game against Cornell let us know what the competition is going to be like out there (on the east coast)," said Malko, "but at the same time our recent wins have given some needed confidence to our offense."
The Bears return home for a five game home stand beginning on Wednesday, April 5th, against Denver University at 1 p.m. inside Memorial Stadium.
GOALS: Cal - Must 3, Forrest 2, Kado 2, Mao 2, Wheatley 2, Arndt 1, Dunnigan 1, Liu 1, Monger 1, Howard - Rhodes 2, Harrison 1, Lanaux 1. ASSISTS: Cal - Monger 2, Wheatley 2, Forrest 1, Kado 1, Must 1, Scribner 1, Howard - none. SAVES: Cal - Coelho 10, Howard - Lawrence 15. SHOTS: Cal 33, Howard 14.
